The camera & lens:

Post processing:

Lightroom - I cropped first up, as even at 250mm, I was a fair way away, and finches are teeny. I put recovery bar up to maximum to flatten the contrast (there were some hot spots on the concrete). Then I used the blacks (20), fill light (37) and clarity (+52) to re-introduce contrast the way I wanted it. After that, I still used a relatively strong curve, geared toward lightening the finch's chest feathers (to contrast from the rest). Added in some noise reduction (34) to counter the ISO 800 setting. Finally, a minor vignette (-22) to spotlight the bird a bit.

The wash-up:

It would have been better to shoot earlier in the day to get some more light, and use a lower ISO setting. But this is the earliest I can get back from work!

What would you do?

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